Futures trading is the trading of futures contracts which allows specific stocks, commoditites or such assets to be traded at a pre-determined price in future. For instance, a farmer may short a futures contract on his 5000 bushels of corn grains at the price of $0.30 per bushel to a buyer of corn grains. By doing so, the farmer has guaranteed himself the price of $0.30 per bushel for his corns when harvest time comes. The buyer would also have guaranteed himself the purchase price of $0.30 per bushel. In this case, the farmer is clearly hedging against a drop in price of corns while the buyer is clearly expecting the price of corn to be higher than $0.30 when harvest time comes and commits himself to buying at that price. Of course, this is merely an over simplified example of how futures work.